Inclusive ice skating team celebrates success

A figure skating coach who led her team to 40 medals at the Inclusive Skating World Championships said the experience was "just magical".

The event promotes the inclusion of skaters with any form of impairment or disability and Sarah Carter from Telford said: "The team have excelled themselves again this year."

She has been coaching at Telford Ice Rink for 15 years and added: "What matters most to us is not just the medals, but the confidence, independence and belief each skater has developed along the way."

The team won the awards at the championships just before Christmas and was presented with medals in a ceremony at Telford ice rink.

Maleena Moorhouse, who joined the team last March, said she had skated for 10 years previously, when she was younger, but then gave it up.

She came back to skating in her mid-20s and said: "Getting back into it, the confidence is different... It's so easy when you're younger."

Now, she is back to skating between four and eight hours a week and said: "I love the challenge, I think it's good for your mental health as well just to really push out the boundaries."

Another member of the team, Tim Barnsley, said: "I wanted something that was both athletic and challenging."

Speaking about his coach, he said: "She lets you do pretty much anything you feel you're capable of and then a little bit more."

Explaining the success of Team Carter, Carter said: "The key to winning medals is to try not to win any."

She said although that might sound counter-intuitive, she encouraged her skaters not to think about medals and instead concentrate on working hard and enjoying themselves.

That would then come out in the performance itself, she said.

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